Paris Police Captain Cleared of Radicalization Allegations, Set to Return to Duty

The administrative suspension of the 39-year-old police officer followed the knife attack by Mickaël Harpon, a radicalized employee of the Paris police headquarters. Subsequently, an investigation was conducted against him and ruled out the suspicion of radicalization. The Paris police prefect had been informed of this since November. However, he was waiting for the results of another investigation for breach of secularism before reintegrating the captain, as reported by France Inter.

In 2011, the police officer had been reported. He had just married a Muslim lawyer and converted to Islam. Refusal of any contact with female personnel, new beard, discourse on religion... His behaviors caused great concern among his colleagues. In 2018, the couple separated, but the captain did not change his attitude. At the end of 2019, his colleagues reported him again.

Exasperated, the police officer filed a complaint with the police police for discrimination and seized the Defender of Rights. According to Anass Khafif, the captain’s lawyer, his client "deeply regrets that civil servants who are there to serve the interests of the French, do not know how to detect what a radicalization phenomenon is. We mix upright civil servants with those who have committed the unthinkable."

After an administrative suspension, the police officer will resume work on March 2. Assigned to the service in charge of tracking down fugitives, he will now serve in a unit in charge of tax fraud.